First Meeting
by A Bittersweet Liar
Summary: Speedy finally meets Kaldur, or rather Devil Ray. He understands why Red Arrow doesn't-can't hate him. I wrote this because this needed to be written. Warning: Spoilers for Season 2, mild Swearing, & Slash. Mentions of Koy.


**Genre:** General, Angst, Hurt, Dark.

**Characters:** Speedy/Original Roy Harper, Kaldur'ahm/Devil Ray/Aqualad, Red Arrow/(_2nd Clone of_) Roy Harper

**Idea/Prompt:** Speedy finally meets Kaldur.

**Length:** 1,814 words.

**Pairing:** _broken!_Roy(Red Arrow)/Kaldur

**Rating:** Teen or PG, somewhere in between, because of hints of sex, and maybe swearing.

**Summary:** Speedy meets Kaldur, and understands why Red Arrow speaks of Kaldur as if he were still a great man. Red Arrow finds out why Kaldur left the team.

**Author's Note:**

I was always curious to why no one write about Kaldur ever interacting with the original Roy Harper, because he would've sometime sooner. And this came up, so I hope you find this interesting enough to read. Enjoy, Read, & Review!

**Warning(s):** Spoilers for Season 2, Slash. Mentions of Death.

* * *

**First Meeting**

* * *

"Kaldur, right?" he asks, blue eyes hesitant.

Kaldur raises an eyebrow, says nothing, but nods instead. He watches his surroundings carefully, watches the brick walls stained with graffiti, and trash all over the ground. Notices the faint sewer smell, and focuses on the boy dressed in gold and blue-not red. Ignores a pang in his heart.

"You-you were a hero, weren't you?" blue eyes widening slowly. A golden bow in his hand, with familiar trick arrows.

"Indeed I was. But now I am not." Kaldur answers calmly, lips pressed in a thin line. Because this _boy_ reminded him of Roy, 9 years back. "You are Speedy, if I'm _not_ mistaken?" Kaldur asks, his pale green eyes looking sad, but his tone suggests everything, but sadness.

"Yeah I'm Speedy." He pauses, before gazing at him determinedly, ignoring the firmness of the blond's words. "They said **you** were the best." he chooses his words carefully, glancing at the pale green eyes, pale pink lips, and Speedy thinks he can understand _why_ Red Arrow was in love with the man in front of him.

Kaldur says nothing to that.

"I wished I had met you then~" his tone slightly wistful, eyes dazed, he remembers Cadmus, cold, and wishing he could have fallen in love before all of this had happened.

Kaldur's heart hurts, as he waits for the boy to finish his words. His expression remains serious, eyes fierce, and ready for any sudden attack.

"He talks about you." Speedy tells him all of a sudden, looking quite serious.

And Kaldur feels confused, wondering why Speedy changed the subject so suddenly. To a subject Kaldur has been avoiding for 3 _long_ years. He remains neutral to the words, despite how his emotions were reacting uncontrollably at the remembrance of memories. Memories he'd tried to bury away, ever since Tula's death.

The original Roy smiles. "Not me. The other Roy. The one who _was_ your best friend".

And Kaldur feels his heart clench painfully, from _years_ of bottled up pain. He finds it difficult to breathe all of a sudden. But on the outside, he only shows a flicker of annoyance, and remains calm.

"He said you were the best of them. That Young Justice wouldn't have lasted without you." A sad smile fills the 17-year-old Roy's face. "I can see it even _now_."

"I-I **was** the best. Now, I am not". He tells the younger, because even though _he_ looks like Roy. He isn't **his** Roy. Not the one he loved-_still _loves. Not the one who made love to Kaldur like Kaldur was _everything_ he needed. Like Kaldur was his safety net, and nothing else mattered.

His Roy had moved _on_. And so he did as well. The plan could not be compromised for their love. The lives of millions were on stake. He ignores the smell of salty tears, filling his eyes. And tries to keep the memories from re-surfacing.

"_Hey Kal. I know I don't usually say this. But I-I...I think I love you"._

"I don't think so." Speedy tells him. His tone holding the same arrogant-yet-confident tone that _his_ Roy always had, when it came to any question about Kaldur that needed to be answered, that was the tone he used, which usually stated, "I know _everything_ about Kaldur. Don't even try to prove me wrong".

Kaldur remains silent. The wind howls against the almost empty alleyway. A crumpled paper rolls away along the direction of the wind.

"Because if you _really_ were. You would've killed me already~" Speedy states, blue eyes twinkling with mischief, and confidence.

"Hmm" he begins, and in a few seconds, his silver dagger is against Speedy's neck. "**Don't** underestimate me Speedy. Or you'll _die_. Just like Artemis."

Speedy doesn't look scared, but slightly startled at the change in their positions. He fiddles with his fingers to try and keep a hold on his bow.

Kaldur's heart races insistently. Because Speedy looks like _Roy_ in that moment. When Kaldur had found out that he was Black Manta's son. He had threatened to hurt Roy to keep the other away. And Roy didn't even care then. He told Kaldur _"If you trusted me despite how I almost led the fall of the Justice League. Then I don't care who the fuck your father is. You're **still** Kaldur. And I've known you for 5 years now. And I trust you more than I trust Dinah. I love you Kal. No matter who your father is."_ There was only surprise from Roy that Kaldur hated. Roy _didn't_ let him go for a long while, and when he did. He had told Kaldur while caressing his cheeks, _"I'd love you even if you were _my_ poison."_

Kaldur frowns, and waits for the words he _knows_ Speedy has not spoken yet.

"I **know**. But you wouldn't. Not _now_ anyway." A smirk graces the younger's lips, an almost familiar one, and yet it's still so very unfamiliar as well.

Kaldur remembers three long years without Roy's warm embraces, harsh training, days without food, and the lack of comfort. He also remembers the coldness that his father surrounded himself with.

He returns the smirk. "Indeed I would not. You are **not** my target Speedy. But when we meet in the battlefield. I will _not_ hesitate to hurt you, or kill you if needed." and ignores the stab of pain he feels, when he remembers Caldur'ahm. _His_ father, the one who raised him, and taught him not to kill, or hurt others, so that he'd _never _become a villain like Black Manta. Unlike Black Manta, the biological father who had tried to kill him _so_ many times, when he was Aqualad.

He walks away, and places his silver dagger back in its hilt.

Speedy calls out to him, when Kaldur is about 15 meters away. "If you could ever tell him something. What would _you_ tell him?"

A tear manages to escape, and strolls across his cheek. And Kaldur is glad it is night, and that his back is turned to Speedy.

He murmurs calmly, regret lacing his every word. "Tell him I **am** sorry. Sorry for _everything_..." And he leaves the alleyways, soft words echoing, while Speedy stood still.

"You hear that partner?" Speedy calls out to his communicator, eyes looking dark, as a frown marred his youthful features.

"Yeah. I did". A raspy voice replies, sounding choked.

Speedy raises an eyebrow, and says nothing for a moment, while his brain tries to asses the man who calls himself 'Devil Ray'. And Speedy saw no devil in that exotic man. He saw a man filled with sadness. And he wonders, how the man's former teammates could ever believe he was evil. And tries to ignore the bubble of disgust that filled his mind when he remembered his first meeting with the former Kid Flash. He wasn't impressed -by Kid Flash that is-, and he _doesn't_ ever think he will be. The man Nightwing and Red Arrow spoke about seemed to fade away with every passing day.

The man that Kaldur was, lingers still, like a shadow, suffocating the man with bittersweet memories. Speedy doesn't know if he should admire him, or pity him. He does neither.

While somewhere, 20 stories above the ground, Red Arrow, is clutching a blue sapphire necklace to his heart -Kaldur had given that to Roy as an anniversary gift, it was a pair of a necklace that Kaldur had once wore around his neck.

Red Arrow is crying silently. All the while thinking angrily 'You _**bastard**_!' Because he's already figured out Kaldur. He's read every expression perfectly. Kaldur was lying the whole time. And he _knew_, because Kaldur always stood straight when he was stressed, or pressured to do something. The only time Kaldur hadn't been standing straight, when he told Speedy he was sorry. And Kaldur had cried. He had seen that tear. And he felt suffocated. Because whatever Kaldur was doing, it had to be **very** important. It had to be. For Kaldur to be lying about anything, and for Kaldur to be hurt. It hurt Roy even _more_...

"C'mon Speedy. Let's head back to GA's. He'd kill me if I kept you past your curfew kid." A forced tease in his now-hoarse tone.

"Alright Red Arrow. And stop calling me kid. I'm actually _way_ older than you~" Speedy whined, sounding slightly annoyed.

Red Arrow almost smiles, before he notices the faint shadow of a man heading towards the pier. And as he watches his ex-lover walk into the ocean beyond his reach, he puts down his Binoculars, and moves away from the roof he was on.

"You know? He _wasn't_ such a bad guy." Speedy comments after a moment of silence.

"Oh really? Why'd you think so?" Roy asks, a bit curious, though his heart kept calling out for the man **he** loved more than _anything _in the universe.

"Well, because he felt no remorse for stating Artemis had died. I mean, from what you've told me about Kaldur, and what Nightwing's informed me. Kaldur is the self-sacrificing type of guy. Turning evil doesn't change one's habits completely. He should have felt remorse or sadness. He didn't. Only when I mentioned you."

Red Arrow says nothing to Speedy, and waits for further explanation.

"Meaning that she's not dead. Or he's under mind control. Which I doubt is true, if he was, then I wouldn't even be here, and suggesting _this_ to you right now."

And Roy's stomach lurches, as he remembers.

_"Roy." _

_"I love you so much" _

_"I could never hurt you. You, or the team. You've become my second family here on Earth. And I just-I don't think I could last without you".  
_

_"I'm yours, just as you are mine."_

He closes his eyes, and tries to breathe again.

"Red Arrow?"

It fits. _Everything_ fit in that moment. Why Wally wasn't there for the mission. Why Nightwing had called Artemis. And oh God. Kaldur was a mole, for instead of working for the Light, he was working with Nightwing. And Roy curses himself for not noticing any sooner.

He bites his lips hard enough to draw blood.

"Hey Harper, you _still_ there?" the worry evident in Speedy's tone.

"Yeah. I'm **here**." And lands down gracefully.

Speedy peers at him for a moment, before stating "You're _still_ in love with him, aren't you?"

He says nothing in return to the fact, only watches Speedy silently.

Speedy murmurs something, before telling him "Let's go. We're done for today anyway."

He follows. But he can't stop thinking about Kaldur's eyes. His _beautiful_ serene smile. And pale green eyes.

'_Damn it_ _Kal._** I LOVED YOU!** I _still_ love you...' he thinks angrily, and he wishes he could have told the Atlantean everything he'd ever wanted to tell Kaldur, instead of letting Kaldur leave. Letting Kaldur suffer alone. He bites down on the acid rising from his throat. He wants to smoke, and forget.

But Kaldur's _already gone_.

And it scares Roy that he may **lose** Kaldur when the mission is over. He hopes for a miracle.

The wind only blows against the now-empty alleyway.

* * *

**End of First Meeting.**


End file.
